Rebecca Cantrell, the New York Times bestselling author of the Order of the Sanguines and Joe Tesla series (http://www.rebeccacantrell.com), interviewing Michael Krause (http://www.michael-krause.org/), about the most recently completed documentary of Nikola Tesla entitled Nikola Tesla – Visionary of Modern Times.

Nikola Tesla is experiencing a resurgence in popularity recently, more than seventy years after his death, with TV shows, films, cartoons, and books all featuring him as a character. Why do you think he fascinates us so?

Tesla is a myth, and as such he is the perfect screen for our projections of a better, more content way of living. Furthermore, he envisioned our age in detail. And he lived the strange life of a loner, of a lone fighter for the betterment of mankind. And he spoke about that very freely, and he lived in the best hotels of the world. Tesla is a truly fascinating character.

He is indeed. What do you think inspires artists and scientists today about Nikola Tesla? What inspired you?

All this geeky stuff, and of being a strange outsider in a world at the brink of a new era – today, we are in the same position, and many want to be heroes as Tesla was. My inspiration was that I wanted to find out about the real Tesla beyond the myth – and present a working over-unity machine at the end of the film. It didn’t come out that way because there is no over-unity machine, and perhaps there never will be, according to the physics we know of.

What surprises did you encounter while filming your documentary about his life and works?

Biggest surprise was that the American border control already knew that I was coming. They greeted me by name. Tesla-wise I was surprised by all the people who do not question Tesla. Who think he was God-like, and, of course that he is not a superstar. Well, I think he is on his way to be one.

I loved the footage you shot of Nikola Tesla’s haunts. How did it feel to be walking in his footsteps all these years later–from his boyhood village in Smiljan to his hotels in New York to the museum in Belgrade that contains his ashes? Did you feel closer to him or further away?

It was a very good feeling to touch Tesla base, so to speak. To feel and touch the places, for instance to realize that his rooms at the New Yorker Hotel are tiny, tiny. That Smiljan, his place of birth, is still a kind of magic place. And that New York City is still the place that takes in everybody full of ambition, from all around the world, and then he/she is just swallowed up. I think, personally, that although my ambition was to find the real Tesla, I did not succeed. He was a strange loner, and he always remain like that. Tesla’s persona will remain a myth.

Parts of the film dealt with a darker side to Nikola Tesla–taking money from investors for one project and spending it on another and, perhaps inadvertently, providing Nazi Germany with intelligence that led to the sinking of the Lusitania. Do you feel the Nikola Tesla lost his way later in life?

Tesla lost contact to the emerging modern world at the beginning of the 20th century when his Wardenclyffe project failed. Technology and science developed further, but Tesla remained the same. Those developments—for instance quantum mechanics, astronomy, cosmology—do paint a much more detailed, and a really much bigger picture of the universe and its ingredients. That is good. How all that machinery really works, we still don’t know. And at that point, I think, we could well adopt some of Tesla’s ideas for the next steps of mankind.

I noticed an intriguing project on your website that was totally unrelated to Nikola Tesla—a film called Berlin Zombies. What is that about, and when is it due to be released?

Berlin Zombies is in the early phases of development. It’s a comedy drama with happy zombies, and they become superstars. It’s been called “The Rocky Horror Picture Show meets Shaun of the Dead.”

What are you working on next?

I don’t know yet. For the next two or three weeks I will have to finish the German version of the CERN film. Lots to do.

On January 7th, 1943, the Orthodox Christmas Day, Nikola Tesla was dead. FBI mastermind J. Edgar Hoover sent his men over to the New Yorker Hotel. They opened Tesla’s safe, and they took what they wanted. Tesla and his few friends and co-workers had been monitored for some time, as Tesla had always said that he was able to produce a super weapon. A weapon to end all wars. In fact, the U.S. government was already working on such a weapon, the A-bomb. Tesla had no super weapon, but super ideas. Concepts. Visions. A mind for the future. Maybe his persona will find a place at Wardenclyffe soon, in the museum. And maybe Elon Musk (and other financially potent Tesla fans) will help build that place with a price-tag of 8 Mio $. Anyway, Tesla will always be remembered as someone who wanted his ideas and inventions benefit mankind. Thank you, Nikola, even if they don’t know your name, or age.

Tesla enthusiasts from Russia will want to revive one of Nikola Tesla’s dreams, the idea of Global Energy Transmission. The new concept is kind of the Wardenclyffe thing, and of course our friends from Russia are sure about it will work. You can go to their website: http://globalenergytransmission.com/index.php/en/vtem-home. You can also support the whole idea via Indiegogo here: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/let-s-build-a-planetary-energy-transmitter. There is a video on Youtube, and and and. I would wait for their results. Tesla himself was doubtful about the Wardenclyffe concept though. If you let the energy out of the cable, beware of radiation! Airplanes! Humans!

Today Marc Seifer, author of „The Wizard“, a biography about Nikola Tesla, announced that Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors, pledged $1 million toward a new science museum honoring Nikola Tesla in Long Island, on the Wardenclyffe site where he built a 187-foot transmission tower to experiment with wireless power transmission. May this continue …

To begin with the truth: this book is invaluable for everybody who really wants to understand how Nikola Tesla worked at a very deep level. “The Inventions, Researches And Writings of Nikola Tesla”, written by Thomas Commerford Martin and originally published in 1894, is an outstanding compendium of Tesla’s methods and inventions during the most productive phase of his life. This technical book was compiled by a real friend, and admirer, of the “electrical genius”, or “Wizard of Electricity” – this is how Tesla was called during that period before 1893, when a disastrous fire destroyed almost every piece of original work Tesla had done until then. The Polyphase system; the Tesla coil; motors, dynamos, transformers, Tesla’s lighting system; Tesla’s lectures; you will find everything Thomas Commerford Martin, an Englishman, and publisher of ‘The Electrical Engineer’, a technical magazine, had put together. This book is still a classic for electrical engineers, and a goldmine for any reader eager to learn about the state of technology around 1900. If one really wants to study Tesla’s experimental work and his way of thinking, this book is the very best start.

Hello …. good news to all Tesla film enthusiasts, Tesla newbies, Tesla afacionados, and all interested in the story of Tesla’s life, his inventions, his influence in technology, and his importance as the ‘godfather of green’! The documentary film “Nikola Tesla – Visionary of Modern Times (52 Minutes) is now available in following territories: Northern Africa, EAU, Iran (via cable/satellite Star Media Services); Estonia, Lithuania, Armenia, Azerbeidjan, Belorus, Georgia, Kazachstan, Kirgizistan (via satellite/cable Red Media Group); Turkey (Pay-TV, VOD MCD); Canada (SRC); Switzerland SRF Swiss TV; Australia, New Zealand, USA, Canada (VOD). If you are a resident in those territories, go have a look and check it out, and you are more than welcome to spread the word!!!

Wireless power transmission is going to be mainstream technology in the not so distant future. The IEEE-sponsored 2nd conference on “wireless power transfer” will be held in May 2014 (www.wptc2014.org). Topics of the first conference, held at Perugia (Italy) in 2013, were: basic technologies for wireless power transfer; power sources and applications of wireless power; and standardization. There were talks about an Alliance for Wireless Power (A4WP), featuring a Flexibly Coupled Wireless Power Transfer (WPT) System, and talks about Baseline System Specification (BSS). As one can see, the industry is realizing the potential and the environmental plus of a wireless power system. The really astonishing fact is that no trace of the word “Tesla” could be found in the papers. Why?